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Disclaimer: Please forgive the lack of photos, as there wasn't time at the tournament to take any and mine are usually garbage anyway. Most of the armies at the tournament were either gray hordes or only primed anyway...

The date was 2/21/15. The place was Valhalla's Gate, my LGS in my hometown of Columbia, MO. Our turnout was not great (only 8 players), but we still had a good tournament. I brought my Dark Angels army (list below), and the other armies included Blood Angels, another Dark Angels, Imperial Guard, Knights (Adamantine Lance) with Daemon allies (wierd, right?), Grey Knights, and 2 armies of Necrons. The format was 3 rounds of play, with 1500 point armies, using some kind of odd scenarios I had never seen before, using classic mission objectives. Maybe you Dakka guys can help fill me in about what they are called.

My army list:

I planned to deepstrike the drop pod (with Azzy and the tacticals) and the deathwing in the opponent's rear area, hopefully robbing him of some of his vehicles and possibly his warlord very early in the game. The rest of the army (including the highly maneuverable bikers) could grab objectives and harass the opposing army however possible. The librarian, with his valuable PFG, would ride with the black knights in order to make them more durable. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned at all...
Game 1
Opponent: Grey Knights
His list:

Mission Goals: Each of us had an objective marker in our table half for the objective Emperor's Will. Other objective included Table Quarters and Victory Points. Bonuses were available for doing especially well at these.
When I went into this game, I did not think to ask any details about how the Nemesis Strike Force works, so I had no idea that it was a null deployment force! If I had, I would have chosen to go second since I had won the right to do so. I had already deployed my army before I knew this, so it was too late to adjust my tactics. On turn 1, I was really unsure what to do since this was the first time I had ever played against null deployment. I scout moved the bikers (I had broken the attack squadron into 3-bike combat squads) towards the middle of the field (terrible mistake probably), and pretty much scattered my army all over the place, hopefully making it harder for him to deep strike in. I really should have bunched up in a corner with my home objective and just hunkered down and waited for his guys to arrive (hindsight is always 20/20). His turn 1 arrivals included the Librarian with the Paladins, 1 of the dreadknights and the terminators. They pretty much smashed a bunch of my stuff, including my predator, and my dreadnought. Turn 2 I finally got to hit back, with one of my bike combat squads killing one of his terminators (small favors), and my black knights wounding one of the paladins. I also damaged the dreadknight. On my opponent's turn, he got his other Dreadknight (parking it near my black knights) and one of his interceptor squads. He also used Gate of Infinity on his paladins/librarian to teleport them near his home objective (and my tac blob!) I don't remember all of the details, but I do remember that he obliterated the ravenwing knights and librarian (my save rolls were underwhelming all game). The main good news was that he made the mistake of charging his first dreadknight into the tactical blob with Azrael in it (come to think of it that might have been on turn 3). Anyways, after it took a wound to overwatch (2 remaining) it hit and killed a few of the tac marines. But he forgot about the vet. sarge with the fist. With a mighty "HULK SMASH!" the sergeant managed to hit and wound the dreadknight twice (he failed both saves), killing it. The attack bike continued to harass the other Knight, wounding it three times over the course of the game. The terminators managed to finish that one on turn 5 after losing a few of their number to it. I don't remember the specifics of the rest of the game except that the only other of my opponent's units I killed was one of the interceptor squads. At turn 5 the game mercifully ended with me only having the attack bike and the drop pod left alive (his paladins had killed Azrael and his unit). In spite of the [terrible] loss, it was a fun game (I didn't enter the tourney with any real hope of doing well anyway since I am still very new to the game). My favorite moment was definitely the aforementioned Hulk Smash dreadknight kill.

Game 2
Opponent: Blood Angels
His list:

Mission Goals: Crusader (5 objective markers were placed throughout the map similar to tactical objectives on maelstrom of war), Enemy Lines, Kill Points. We also had mysterious objectives.
I unfortunately do not remember a lot of details about this game (even less than Game 1) other than that it was a total cluster -BLEEP-, so the summary will be brief. I apparently did not learn the lesson of game 1 and still spread out my units instead of bunching them in the corner against a null deployment opponent. Worse, I had to go first (my opponent got to choose). I pretty much didn't move during my turn 1, although I did move enough to secure two of the objective markers (Azrael held one, my land speeder another). My opponent dropped five of his nine drop pods and his marines boiled out of them and killed about half my army on turn 1. Those meltas are MEAN! At that point I already thought about just saying "gg" and surrendering, but that would have been very poor sportsmanship and I am nothing if not a gracious loser. As the game went on it just got worse, and at the end of turn 3 I only had the attack bike left and then I did surrender since I would have been tabled on the next turn. This was perhaps the only game of 40k I have ever played where I did not really enjoy it. No one enjoys being curbstomped, right? The dice were definitely not on my side, as like game 1 I felt like I couldn't make a save.

Game 3
Opponent: Necrons
His list:

Mission Goals: Field of Battle (control the center), Table Quarters, Victory Points
I felt better about this matchup, as my opponent was also a relative newcomer to 40k and his 'Crons were not in a Decurion. I chose to go second in this game (after the first two, who can blame me?). On my opponent's first turn, he mainly moved his units forward, shooting at some of my stuff but only killing one biker. On my first turn, I dropped the pod with Azzy's tac blob right behind his overlord's group (a very reckless move on my part). This showed how little I know about Necrons, since I should have been afraid of those Lychguard! I tried to drop my Deathwing terminators back there too (going for a rear shot on the annihilation barge with the assault cannon), but unfortunately the scatter gods were not kind to me and they scattered right off the board! My deepstrike mishap roll put them in ongoing reserves, thankfully. My Ravenwing Black Knights managed to kill two Wraiths (I love rad shells!) after my Librarian cast Objuration Mechanicum on the Stalker (the haywire hit did nothing unfortunately). Indeed, this is the only game where my libby mattered, as his PFG prevented the destroyers from killing my black knights (my saves were finally happening, thank the Emprah!). The predator had to maneuver to get a shot at the annihilation barge (it missed). Azzy and company shot up some of the Immortals, but only killed 3 out of 5 in one unit. On turn 2, it got interesting. My opponent decided to charge Azrael's blob with his Overlord and Lychguard (and the Immortals too, ultimately) after his units managed to kill most of the tac marines during the shooting phase. His overlord challenged Azrael (his warlord trait was Honorable something-or-other so he had to). Azzy accepted, and promptly gibbed the Overlord (my opponent failed all his RP saves, to his complete dismay). This confirmed what I already suspected, that Azrael is a melee BEAST! His last wraith tried to charge the Black Knights, but they cut it down with overwatch (it was already damaged from last turn). On my turn 2, my Predator shot the Stalker (stripping it of its weapon). Azrael continued to fight, although at the end of the assault phase, he was alone and only had one wound left. The deathwing finally arrived (this time I dropped them in range of a bike's teleport homer!) and shot at the Immortals. Through a combination of bad shooting rolls, lucky armor saves and RP, only one of the two Immortals died. After this, the game was less remarkable, with me and my opponent trading shots (although I took the worst of it, losing the dreadnought and predator (although the latter managed to kill the Stalker). Azrael finally died after killing one or two Lychguard, and my opponent lost his scarabs to a combination of bolter fire from two bike squads and some insanely good luck on my part when I assaulted them with some bikes. The scarabs had already killed my Librarian and Black Knights (my warriors softened them up a bit first). Ultimately, I lost this game too, but it was a very fun one. If I had been a little smarter (and maybe a bit luckier too?) I could have won it. The best part of the game, at least from a narrative perspective, was the challenge between the Overlord and Azrael. That, I feel, is a big part of what 40k is all about (Two mighty heroes dueling it out).

Overall, in spite of a 0-3 record for the day (last place of course!), I had fun. I learned some things, met some fun people, and I saw some cool armies. I also just had to buy myself a new Land Raider Crusader as a consolation prize!

I know this battle report was lacking in detail (I wrote it on memory, and my memory isn't perfect unfortunately), but I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to critique my play as described, as well as my army selection. Thank you!

Nice write up. Seems like you went with the right attitude. to have fun and enjoy yourself playing some new armies.
I don't know much about dark angels to comment on your army list or tactics but sounds like you were up against some tough lists wth that 2nd list being particularly tricky.

Thank you for actually writing a batrep where the writer loses! Awesome games!

thanks for the report ZergSmasher!
Tourneys are a great way to get in lots of games against opponents/armies you are unfamiliar with eh? Once you get to know their tricks/units your best deployment strategy should be more clear, allowing you to be in position to win the game from the get go!

Good luck out there!

Thanks for all the encouragement guys! I know I'll probably lose plenty more games before I start becoming competitive at tournaments, but I already feel like I am learning and getting better at the game!